W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963

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W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963

by David Levering Lewis, Jack MacRae (Editor)

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 100 ratings · 5 reviews

This monumental biography--eight years in the research and writing--treats the early and middle phases of a long and intense career: a crucial fifty-year period that demonstrates how Du Bois changed forever the way Americans think about themselves.

Paperback, 752 pages

Published September 1st 2001 by Holt Paperbacks (first published September 1st 2000)

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Mar 04, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-american-history

I checked the second volume of Lewis' DuBois biography out of the library right after finishing the first volume which I think is a testament to the excellence of the author's work. Volume II was much harder to make my way through, which is not due to any fault of Lewis. In the second volume you could feel the increasing pace of the modern world, especially as DuBois widened his intellectual horizons into Marxism and the Pan-African movement. It was also interesting to see how Lewis showed the r...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After the first few sentences of this masterpiece by David Levering Lewis, it is obvious why his account of the second half of the life of Du Bois won the Pulitzer Prize For Biography. Lewis possesses a writing style that has smoothness to it. Page after page the life of W. E. B. Du Bois and the thoughts of the man seem real enough to be your own (provided you can accept the controversy of a figure as great as Du Bois). Lewis does his best to be objective in his account of Du Bois, or I should s...more After the first few sentences of this masterpiece by David Levering Lewis, it is obvious why his account of the second half of the life of Du Bois won the Pulitzer Prize For Biography. Lewis possesses a writing style that has smoothness to it. Page after page the life of W. E. B. Du Bois and the thoughts of the man seem real enough to be your own (provided you can accept the controversy of a figure as great as Du Bois). Lewis does his best to be objective in his account of Du Bois, or I should say, as objective as is possible for a historian. Lewis is unafraid to show the human side of Du Bois; the side that engaged in regular extra-marital affairs, and the side that overlooked the atrocities committed by such variances as the governments of Japan, Stalin and Mao.
Du Bois is portrayed as genuine from the start. He genuinely wanted to help his people, the African Americans, achieve the franchise and self-determination. He wanted to not only achieve this for the American Africans, but for world Africans, people of color and those of Nordic or Aryan origin, in that order. Ultimately he WAS an anti-imperialist. He was against exploitation of all peoples by Capitalistic domination. He was all for eradicating poverty wherever it may be found as he believed that to be one of the underlying causes of racism, and ultimately, war. In the efforts of this noble pursuit, Du Bois was open to any system available that would allow the eradication of racism and poverty. He refused, however, to be confined to a box as Lewis portrayed in the astute observation that he was “A thinker whose obligation was to be dissatisfied continually with his own thoughts and those of others”. His study of Marxism came relatively late in life, but Lewis is very fair in his portrayal of the revolution in Russia and how it would have affected the mind of Du Bois. Here was a mind looking for a way out, and he saw in the Russian, and later the Chinese, revolutions the first establishments of governments whose primary mission was stated to eradicate poverty and provide literacy, free health care, and the full benefits of the means of production to everyone. To state whether or not these governments actually achieved this misses the point. Du Bois was looking for a better way for his people, and did not restrict his thinking to a purely “American” line. He even went so far as to join the Communist Party USA in his 90’s. He believed that Capitalism would ultimately destroy its people and eventually itself. As an alternative, he believed the only way to be one where the lower classes of society had the power. As an observer of politics in America, he was ahead of his time in realizing that the two-party system would never work. He deplored the fact that business had so much say in government and said that a citizenry governed by Democrats and Republicans, both of which were controlled by the rich, was NOT a democracy.
Lewis takes the time to show that the life of a great African-American thinker during the critical times of Reconstruction, the turn of the century, Jim Crow and two World Wars was not a life without adversity. Sure Du Bois had an ego that could be easily bruised at times, but, more often than not, he found himself and his life guarded by people with a lighter skin tone whose intelligence was merely a fraction of the man they were restricting.
This is a book whose tone may not agree with everyone. Like Du Bois himself, some will accuse Lewis of being too radical, of not coming down hard enough on radical ideology. It must be stated before you read this book that it is radical because the subject of the book is radical. Historical figures like the one portrayed here challenge us in our own thinking. They challenge us to re-evaluate how we are living in the possibility that there IS a better way. The importance of remembering not to define one’s self by the currents flowing through society in the pursuit of equality is no where better stated than in the life of W. E. B. Du Bois.(less)

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Aug 03, 2011 Eventure Sf added it

One of the first man to ever receive a PH.d in Harvard University...he tells his facts and truths about humanity.

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Jun 16, 2012 Kathy Kattenburg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first time I tried reading this book I could not get through it; the second time I tried, years later, I couldn't put it down. Go figure. It's long, scholarly, meticulously researched, and if you're interested in Du Bois, I doubt you will find a better biography.

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Mar 24, 2007 Conrad marked it as to-read

Shelves: owned, history

I got this home and then found out it was the second in a series. Dammit!

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